I’m not an ostrich

12Feb

This post title will make no sense if you haven’t watched Rio yet. It’s an animated movie about a blue macaw named Blu. He was raised in Minnesota and is sought out to go to Rio de Janeiro to mate because he’s the last male of his species. He gets into some adventures along the way and, at some point in the movie, they have to go find Luiz to help them. One of the characters says Luiz is not far, about thirty minutes, as the crow flies, to which Blu asks “and how far as the macaw walks?” All birds are surprised that he can’t fly and he tries to argue that not all birds fly, ostriches don’t, to which Jewel (the female macaw) replies that he’s not an ostrich. His answer is “Well… not technically,” so we do know he knows he’s not an ostrich. Still, at the end of the movie, when he finally flies, I couldn’t help getting emotional when he shouted: “I’m not an ostrich! I’m not an ostrich!”

Often times we find ourselves a macaw living our life as an ostrich. We do what we are supposed to, what is expected from us, and we believe things are the way they are supposed to be. But are they? Is everything how it’s supposed to be? Or are we chained to what we grew to believe was the right way to do things?

This reminds me of what Sweet Pea says in the end of Sucker Punch. “Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us, and at the same time sings that we will never die? Who teaches us what’s real, and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live and what we’ll die to defend? Who chains us? And who holds the key that can set us free?… It’s You! You have all the weapons you need. Now Fight!”

We do have all the weapons we need. We just have to believe. Believe in ourselves. Believe we’re not an ostrich and learn to fly and fight. Maybe it’s time for me to believe and finally look in the mirror and see what I am instead of what I’m supposed to be. See the macaw and not the ostrich.